John Smith wrote on Jul 14^th, 2013 at 10:26pm:


Yeah, my guts gave me waste retention failure, and I had a cleaning job to do after viewing that footage. Called the nearest farmer to see if he could shoot me with horse tranquilisers to try and settle me down. Oh, mah siiides were a-splittin'.

Chard wrote on Jul 14^th, 2013 at 6:56am:



Some Americans, including you, are so paralysed by the ever-present accusation of racism that you put up on the TV screen and read out on air four OBVIOUSLY joke Chinese names with a straight face. This hoax worked because there are millions of Americans like that TV newsreader and you, Wai So Dim.

Luckily, not all Americans are clowns like you and those TV idiots.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 2:03am:


I think it depends whether a person is offended or not. People tend not to use "weird names" as insults in Australia because they just don't work in Australia. A person has to be an idiot to think weird names are insulting in Australia. Maybe that's not the case in America. Maybe weird names do hurt in America. But in Australia they are dumb and stupid. Your potential victim will ask you to think of a better insult.

You might have a little more success making fun of a person's educational background, like bragging about your university degree and belittling someone for not having one or for being a tradesperson. But then again, not everyone cares if you have a university degree or not, so the "insult" may fall on deaf ears. You might also have others in the crowd who don't have university degrees telling you to f**k off for being a snob. Australians don't like being patronised.

Race relations in Australia is not like it is in the USA. In fact, the most racist thing you can do to someone is to tell them they are not Australian, they do not belong here and to get a passport, get on a boat and f**k off back to their "own country." It's not a question of there not being racism in Australia, but the fact that racism is completely different here to what you have in the USA. We are a nation of immigrants, so we think of it in terms of immigration. Skin colour and linguistically influenced names are just a way of identifying a person's ancestry and cultural background.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 2:03am:


If racism is about power, domination, bullying and persecution, don't you think the insults have to hurt?

Just try making fun of an Asian in Australia, call him Sum Ting Wong, Wi Tu Lo or Ho Lee bugger. He'll laugh at you. Just try. He'd think you're an idiot.

The same tricks people use in the USA don't work in Australia. It's a totally different way of thinking.

You need to learn how to be racist the Australian way before you can understand why we think a bunch of weird names isn't racist, because to us, something else is racist and it isn't that.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 2:03am:




That's a funny joke. It works like most jokes - you don't expect the punchline - a pilot!
Good one.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


That's actually what I was talking about: making names based on someone's cultural background.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


I don't normally mention this, but because you asked, no I am not white.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


You experienced it in the USA, not in Australia. Like I said, if you were to experience racism in Australia, it would be unlikely to involve making names based on someone's cultural background because it would be silly and wouldn't be an effective insult. I don't call it being racist. I call it being silly.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


Race and racism are social constructs, the meaning of which comes from your own personal experience of them. You experienced it in the USA, not in Australia, so your idea of "racism" is shaped by your experience in the USA. You're an expert on American racism, but not on Australian racism.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


Race relations in Australia has, for most of Australia's history, mostly been an immigration issue more than anything else.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


Anyone who wants to be really insulting wouldn't try to use them as an insult. People may have tried to use "racial slurs" to make fun of people in primary school. Some of it may continue in high school, but slowly, as people get older and more mature, they realise how crude and silly these "racial slurs" are. It's like toilet humour, talking about urine, faeces and making jokes about farting and sex. When you're a kid, that stuff is funny, but you grow out of that stuff. When you get to secondary school, sex, farting and bodily functions become a serious business. As you go through puberty you stop thinking of them as a joke. You also stop thinking that making weird names out of someone else's language is funny. By the time people get to university, most of them have stopped doing it.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


I don't consider it "racism" because I always thought "racism" had to be a "threat." If someone makes a stupid joke, they aren't a threat. They aren't a threat because most mature adults are not stupid enough to try to use the "joke" as an insult. Someone may say something stupid, but their peers who are mature adults are not going to join in because they are intelligent enough not to support it even if they were racist. If they really wanted to be insulting and hostile and express their "racism," they would find other ways to express it.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


It looks like you aren't saints either. Our two countries are even. If you have experienced racism your whole life in the USA, why point the finger at Australia? It seems to me that every country that has ever tried developing a multi-ethnic community deals with the problem in its own way.

Chard wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 4:41am:


Yes we do have stereotypes about Lebanese people. There are stereotypes, but using weird names as insults to demean people based on their language isn't one of them.

I also haven't heard it being used as a joke here in Australia for a very, very long time. The fact that it happened in the USA means that for now, Australia is off the hook.

Chard...

Quote:


You can't be serious.

The very first job I got in Australia was cleaning toilets in a factory ~ and because I was uniquely an Englishman, the Southern European ethnics took particular delight in trying to humiliate me.

One Italian's big moment of the day was to smear his poo across the wall of his cubicle EACH and every morning before I would arrive with my mop and bucket. I never complained.

One day I put in a requisition order for a hose with a nozzle. This piqued the Australian boss's curiosity when the storeman required his signature.

The boss left the office complex and came to see me. That's when I was forced to explain myself. He couldn't believe I'd kept quiet about it.

Consequence:

The Italian was sacked.
They hired a new cleaner.
I was moved over to assist in the store room.

And that's just one story of many.

So stop thinking yo black ass got a monopoly on sob-stories.

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 15^th, 2013 at 9:20pm:


you are excused